All's Fair: A 1940's Ladybug and Chat Noir
by thecrazydragonlady15
Summary: War is on the horizon. For Nancy Lambert, life is still good despite this. When she helps rescue an old Chinese man with her friend and crush Richard Wilson, she is given the power of the Miraculous, turning her into the hero Ladybug. Just as she seems to get used to her powers, America goes to war and suddenly duty calls. Just how will this pair alter the outcome of war and love?
1. Chapter 1

**Hi everyone!**

 **Dragon here. So listen, this is my first fanfiction. I got the idea from a tumblr post about a 1940's pick-up line and once I find the link, I'll attach it here. Anyway, this fanfiction is set in the 1940's which means no Marinette or Adrien but definitely lots of Cat and Lady. Now I know that the cannon series is set in France, however, it has been hinted at that there were multiple heroes with multiple cultures so mine is going to be set somewhere I am more familiar with: 1940's America which is where I assume that pick-up line would have been used.**

 **Anyway, enough of my ramblings. Please be gentle with me for the first time but do rate and review!**

 **Spoiler: I don't own any of things related to Miraculous Ladybug. This is a work showing my appreciation to the show.**

 **Happy reading!**

 **~thecrazydragonlady15**

The world was falling apart.

Nancy Lambert read the newspaper in her hand with a grim look on her face. She flipped through the pages as the trolley trudged down the street towards home. A sick feeling settled in her stomach as she read about the latest events unfolding over in Europe; the year was 1940. In the previous year, a man named Adolf Hitler had invaded the country of Poland and had left in his wake a series of confusion and chaos. Whispers from the adults around her were about the possibility of war. It was only a matter of time. She bit her lip as she listened. Even someone as young as her could tell that this was not going to be good if events continued to unfold the way that they were.

She flipped the pages again. After several minutes, the trolley came to a halt, jerking its riders forward, and a tiny bell signaled the ride to be over. She looked around quickly. Folding her paper and securing her hat to her head with her hand, she followed a group of people off. The trolley left again.

Nancy was standing on the sidewalk of some town houses on the outskirts of New York City. They were narrow buildings, crammed together, with some trees and people on the street. She smiled. The sun was shining brightly and the air tasted sweet. Even the possibility of war wasn't going to dampen her mood.

To her left, she heard a group of kids but they weren't laughing like some of the others; they were shouting and when she looked, they were kicking a man into submission. Her jaw dropped. She placed her folded newspaper under her arm. Normally, a polite young woman wouldn't twist her face in such a manner as to show her anger or clench her fist or stomp down the road, but in this case, she wasn't going to let this slide. She went right up to the group of kids. The boys, all five of them, continued to use their feet on the crouching man. Nancy could see he was old. He was also small with the hair starting to recede from his forehead. He had a cane in one hand but it did him little good as he protected his face from the abuse of the boys.

"What are you doing," she called. One of the boys stopped but only stuck his tongue out before returning to the fray. Her cheeks puffed out. She grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and pulled. He went back with a thud. His friend from the right saw and immediately turned and shoved her down himself. She landed with a thud on the dirty sidewalk; her once bright yellow, collared dress was now covered in black and brown. The shock sent a cold shiver through her body. Her anger was starting to get the best of her. Before she could move though, a hand appeared out of nowhere and she looked up, amazed, to find her friend and classmate Richard Wilson smiling down at her.

"You seem to be in a sticky situation ma'am," he noted. She rolled her eyes and accepted the hand. Once up, she started dusting herself off. Richard coughed a bit before turning around. Nancy watched as he went up to the boys, grabbed two of them by the collar, and pulled them away. He then proceeded to toss them unceremoniously onto the ground. The other three saw. They left the old man with shouts, fists ready. Richard landed a punch on the first's jaw. The second got a kick to the gut. The third froze and he shot him an icy-green stare that sent him back peddling from his spot. "Get out of here. All of you." The kids staggered to their feet and took off with some shouts and comments directed at them. Richard huffed. He turned back to face Nancy, whose face was now a bit red, with a smile. "You alright?"

"Sure. No damage here. Just a little dirty. Thank-you for your help." He tipped his hat at her.

"My immense pleasure." Both turned their heads when they heard a soft groan from the older man. Nancy immediately rushed to his side. Kneeling down, she grabbed him gently under his arm and assisted him to his feet.

"Are you alright," she panicked. The older man, whom she could clearly see was a China man, nodded.

"I am alright," he replied in accented English. A sigh of relief escaped her lips and she knelt down to pick up his hat which had fallen. It was torn, dirty, and dented. She smiled sadly.

"I am so sorry. I hate that this is how America greets you but I hope your time here isn't wasted." She dusted and attempted to fix the hat as much as possible before she handed it back. He took it with a smile.

"Thank-you young lady. You have a pure heart to try and help an old man like me. I would like to reward you. Both of you." The two shared a look. Nancy held up her hands immediately.

"No-no. There's no need for a reward. We were just happy to help. Right Richard?" The young man nodded.

"Nonsense. I insist." He reached into his pocket and pulled out two boxes. Both were black and red in color with oriental designs on the top. He handed the first to Nancy and the second to Richard. They started to open them but the old man quickly, but softly, placed a hand over the tops to stop them. "Not now. Open them only when you need them."

"Need them? What do you mean," Richard asked. The old man only smiled and started walking away. "Hey wait a second!"

For an old man, he moved fast and before either one of them could stop him, he disappeared around a corner and was out of sight. They shared a look again. "What now?" Nancy shrugged and put the box inside her handbag.

"I guess we hold on to them until we need him like he said or we find him again." An awkward silence suddenly stretched between them. A light breeze forced some of her hair in front of her face and she brushed it back with a gentle hand. Richard's face lit up bright red. She didn't notice. "Uh… thank-you again but I should probably go."

"Uh, yeah, sure. I'll see you tomorrow?" She smiled and waved as started walking down the street towards her home. Richard rubbed the back of his neck, watched her disappear, before taking off in the opposite direction to head back into the city.


	2. Chapter 2

**Howdy again,**

 **Here's chapter 2! Still set in New York, still dealing with American Ladybug and Cat. I still don't own anything related to Miraculous Ladybug and I'm just showing my deep appreciation for it.**

 **Happy reading,**

 **~thecrazydragonlady15**

Nancy opened the door to one of the town houses and entered into a warm, beige colored hallway. Off to her right, there was the sound of someone moving around in the kitchen which was painted yellow, and to her left, there was the sound of the television in the living room which meant that both of her parents were home. She shut the door and dropped her keys in the bowl by the entrance. Her mother ducked out her head from the kitchen.

"Welcome home Nancy," she called. Nancy smiled. The two were very similar in appearances. They had rather slender faces and circular eyes, thin lips, and low placed cheekbones. Her mother's hair was put up in a braided halo that was pinned around her head. She had a bit of flour on her cheek. Nancy chuckled and motioned to it. The older woman quickly brushed it off and then eyed her. "What in the world happened to you?"

"I uh… I got knocked down by a kid. Thankfully Richard was there and…"

"Richard uh?" Her mother's eyes immediately lit up. "That nice boy from school you are always talking about?" Her face lit up red.

"Yes mother. That is him. I am going to change. Do you need any help with dinner?" She shook her head and waved her daughter off to her room on the second floor. Nancy thankfully went to it and sighed against the door. Her room was rather simple. There was floral wallpaper on each wall, a simple brown desk for her work, a radio, her bed, a matching dresser and mirror. It was to the dresser that she went and picked out a plain green collared dress to replace the one she currently was wearing. She peeled off the dirty one. Hopefully her mother could work some magic and get the stains out. She placed the dress at the foot of her bed. Once changed, she turned on the radio to listen to some music before heading downstairs for dinner. It was pleasantly playing some Chopin. She hummed along as she pulled out the reading she needed to do for school.

Suddenly, the sound stopped and a man's frantic voice came from the machine.

"We interrupt your daily broadcast for this breaking news. Downtown New York is currently under attack by a masked person calling themselves the Confectioner. People who have been hit by this villain's ray have found themselves turned into giant walking gingerbread men. The police have already dispatched forces to try and subdue this villain…." Nancy jumped up and stared at the radio. She dropped her books on the ground and ran downstairs. Her father and mother were already in the living room, staring at the television. The image was grainy at best in black and white but they could still clearly see a rather ragged looking newsman with a large wired microphone in front of his face as he stood in the middle of Central Park. He was reporting very quickly about the situation. The camera shot up showing the one causing chaos. She had what looked like a chef's hat on her head, some long curly pig tails that were laced with all sorts of circular pieces of candy, and in her hand was a long candy cane-stripped cane that was shooting out the random beams of destruction. The camera caught clearly as one of her beams came down and struck a running person who transformed into a giant gingerbread, turning around almost immediately to return to its creator. She was laughing but they couldn't hear what she was saying. Her mother gripped her father's shoulders nervously. He rubbed her hands in return. Nancy clenched her fists again and ran out of the room.

This was what the man had meant.

She immediately ran to her bag and pulled out the little black box. She clutched it for a second. Then, without hesitation, she flung it open. Inside were two little red earrings. A burst of light blinded her for a second and something floated up wards. When the light broke, she found herself starring up at a tiny red creature. It had a large head in proportion to its body, large blue eyes, three black spots on its forehead and cheeks, and little tail feathers. It blinked. She blinked. It smiled.

"Hi Nancy. My name's Tikki. I am your Kwami and you are the new Ladybug."

"Wait one second. Let me see if I understand all the way. All I have to do is put these earrings on, transform into this Ladybug, go out and face that crazy woman turning people into gingerbread men, destroy this akuma, and purify it?"

"Exactly." Nancy had her head leaned to one side as she put on both of the earrings. She examined herself for a second and then sighed.

"You did an excellent job explaining it Tikki but are you sure I can do something like this? I mean I am not exactly the outgoing type."

The little red kwami flew over and landed on top of her head. "It will be alright Nancy. Promise. You were picked for a reason. Everyone has reasons to doubt themselves but as long as you are willing to try and overcome them, then you should be fine." She debated for a second but was brought back to reality as the news made another announcement about more people being turned. There was no room for hesitation.

"Alright. I will do it." Tikki smiled brightly and hovered a few inches away.

"Excellent! All you have to say now is 'Spots on!' The earrings will do the rest." Nancy nodded and stood from her seat.

"Tikki, spots on!"

The kwami disappeared into the earrings. Nancy felt a warm energy surge around her and envelope her. It traveled across her face, down her arms and body, ending at her feet. When it was done, a new person stood in front of the vanity mirror.

Where once a simple dress had been now was a completely red outfit. Her arms were exposed and two pieces of cloth wrapped around and under them. Her upper chest was mostly exposed as well by the heart shaped neck line. Her pants were high and had buttons on the side. The last thing she noticed was her face. It was now disguised behind a mask. She gasped. Heat ran into her cheeks and she quickly hugged herself to hide the exposed skin. "Wh-what is this outfit? It is completely embarrassing!" She squirmed for several seconds before remembering the reason she had transformed. Standing up straight, she reached down to her hip and released the yo-yo, apparently the weapon of choice for Ladybugs, that Tikki had quickly explained would help her with her mission. She opened her window and threw it out to a nearby tree branch. It caught and she swung out, heading towards the battle.

People were screaming. They were running in all sorts of directions; even the news crew had given up broadcasting and was running away. Ladybug landed with a soft thud on the exposed pathway of Central Park and stared up at the Confectioner. She was laughing and shooting beams in random directions. Just as she was about to call for her attention, a voice behind her said, "Hi sugar, are you rationed?" She turned confused.

Leaning against one of the trees was a man dressed in all black from head to toe. His collared shirt was black, his slacks were black, and so were his shoes, gloves, suspenders and hat. What made him even more unique was his tail which landed nicely at about ankle level and the triangle shaped ears that extended off of his hat. He proceeded to take said hat off of his head and bowed to her. "Black Cat's the name. Destruction is my game." He took her hand and placed a gentle kiss on it. "You must be Ladybug. My partner told me you would probably show up." She smirked.

"I am and I know about you as well Cat." He flipped his hat playfully back to his head. Even though he wore a mask like her, she found herself drawn into his lively green eyes. She motioned up at the Confectioner. "We need to deal with her as quickly as possible."

"Any suggestions?"

"Yeah. Let us get her away from the running crowd of people and back towards the more empty part of the park."

"Sounds like a sweet idea to me." She groaned.

"Please tell me you will not be making statements the whole time we are working." He merely winked at her.

"I will not make a promise I cannot keep." He took off running to a horde of gingerbread men, pulling out a long silver staff as he did. Ladybug rolled her eyes again. She was close behind.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi everyone,**

 **Before this becomes an issue, I wanted to address the reason Chat Noir is called Black Cat in this fanfiction. I could have had him call himself Chat Noir but I felt like it would be better for him to use Black Cat as a cultural reference. Chat Noir matches his French roots. Black Cat sounds more like an alley cat title for a stray in New York.**

 **Yes I am possibly hinting at something. I don't even know myself right now.**

 **Anywho. I don't own ML but wish I did, so, for now, I'll just show my appreciation.**

 **Happy Reading!**

 **~thecrazydragonlady15**

Nancy collapsed on her bed about an hour later. The sun was completely down by then and she felt sore in every single part of her body. Never before had she moved the way she did that evening. It showed in the form of bruises and cuts. She groaned as her face connected with her pillows. Tikki flew to the desk and watched her with a smile.

"You did a wonderful job for the first time Nancy. You should be proud of yourself." She smiled at her weakly from her pillow.

"That was scary Tikki. I thought Cat and I were going to be killed."

It was true; they had come pretty close to getting smushed by a couple of trees, benches, decorative stones. Cat even had to use his powers at one point to split a trunk in half to keep them from being smashed to pieces. It had been extremely weird to stare into the angry faces of giant gingerbread men but she flung her yo-yo perfectly until they all were down. It bought them a couple of seconds. Yet the sea of minions seemed to be bottomless. No matter how many they knocked out, more got up. Eventually they were pinned back to back.

"Lady, if you got some kind of idea, now would be the time to use it."

"I'm thinking Cat. Cover me for a second."

"Your wish is my command." Cat jumped forward towards some gingerbread men. He managed to land some powerfully good hits on them with his staff. Ladybug grabbed her yo-yo and flung it skyward.

"Lucky charm!" The yo-yo spun in the sky for a second, releasing a mass of tiny little hearts, which eventually formed a…. "A wrench?" She held the thing up. "What in the world…." Ladybug shot a look around the park. Four things came to her sight: a fountain, the water control bolt, Cat's staff, and the Confectioner. "Keep the cover up Cat. I got an idea! Be ready to move when I tell you to." He nodded and slammed another gingerbread man down. Ladybug took off for the fountain. She took the wrench and forced the valve open, causing the fountain to explode. It rained down on the gingerbread men who started to crumble in the moisture. "NOW!" Cat jumped up, slamming his staff into the spray, directing it in a high powered motion up at the Confectioner. There was no time for her to blog and she crumbled under the spray. She fell like a ton of stones to the ground. Cat landed and made some quip about "the way the cookie crumbles." Ladybug rolled her eyes, moved towards the Confectioner, ripping off her hat, and tearing it in two. The tiny black butterfly inside fluttered weakly out. She opened her yo-yo as Tikki had told her to and caught it, releasing instead a pure white butterfly. She smiled at the sight. Then she tossed the wrench in the air shouting, "Miraculous Ladybug!" Pink and red energy had enveloped everything, repairing it and restoring order. Cat had given her a strong clap on the shoulder before the news people had surrounded them. They were hounded with all sorts of questions. Who are you? What was that woman? How did you stop her? Are you going to protect the city from now on? Ladybug had been so flustered, she didn't know how to answer.

Cat had been cool and collected though. He bowed to the reporters and answered their questions very precisely and quickly, "We are Ladybug and Black Cat. We will serve the city when it needs us. For now, that is all we can answer." He grabbed her around the waist and extended his staff so that they were flying through the air and over the tree tops.

Once clear of the crowd, they found a secluded alley way. They sighed and leaned against the brick walls. She smiled at him. "Not bad for our first time right Richard?" He blinked for a second and then let out a chuckle. With a flash of green, his transformation dropped, and standing in front of her was the face of the boy who had saved her twice in one day. Her smile didn't fade even when her transformation did. Tikki landed with a tired thud on her shoulder. Richard's little black Kwami did the same on his shoulder.

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised you knew who I was."

"Of course not. After all, you were given a box like me."

"True. Anyway, this guy is Plagg."

"Tikki."

"Hey," the little black cat groaned. "Got any cheese?" Richard rolled his eyes.

"Not here. I will give you some when we get home."

Nancy reached into her purse and broke apart a cookie she had stashed there earlier in her day. She handed one to each kwami. They ate happily. "Sorry it is not cheese but it will be easier for us to get home once we transform back. Eat up." Richard nodded his agreement. While the kwamis ate, they spoke about what they were going to do and eventually they came up with a plan.

They'd gone their separate ways after that, agreeing to talk more after classes the following day, and now she lay in her bed, a pillow hugged tightly to her chest. Tikki came up and snuggled against her on the same pillow.

"Tikki, are we going to have to do this again?"

"I do not know. Hey, at least you have a friend to help in all this."

"Yeah but we cannot do this for the rest of our lives. We will move, have families, grow old…."

"You are very down to earth in your thinking Nancy." She sighed and squeezed the pillow harder.

"I do not want to be but…." Her eyes glazed over a bit. Tears threatened the corners and she sat up to reach for a towel or something to wipe them away. Tikki stared up at her. After a few seconds, Nancy plastered a fake smile on her lips. "Sorry. I did not mean to worry you." Tikki floated up so that they were looking each other in the eyes. She said nothing. Nancy's eyes watered again. Softly she answered the unspoken question. "I think about the future a lot because of my brother. He would have been twenty five this year. He got killed in an automobile crash a couple of years ago. It destroyed my parents and well, it made me think of the future that he would never get." She curled up again on her bed. "The future is a scary place." Tikki smiled sadly and flew to her shoulder.

"How old do you think I am Nancy?"

"Do you not know you are not supposed to give away your age as a woman?"

"Guess."

She thought for a second. "Hmmmm… thirty?" Tikki shook her head. "Forty?" Again. "Fifty?" Again. "Am I at least heading in the right direction?" A nod. "Higher or lower?"

"Higher. Much higher. I am a kwami. I have always been around as have the miraculous. I have been in all sorts of places with a whole bunch of Ladybugs."

"Really? What kind of places?"

"The first was in China. Then there was Greece and Egypt, Medieval Britain, Feudal Japan, South America, Early North America…."

"Wow so you have seen it all."

"Yeah but it was scary… the first time at least. The first time I went to sleep and woke up in a new location. Even though I am a kwami, and I knew my duties as the giver of the creation magic, it was still a little scary to wake up in a new location, with a new face, and not understanding what it was I needed to do. When it happened again, I was even more scared. Where was I going? Who would I end up with? What if I fell into the wrong hands?"

Nancy's face softened and she gently grabbed her to nuzzle her to her face. It was the closest thing to a hug she could do. The red kwami nuzzled back. "I am sorry you had to endure all of that by yourself." Tikki smiled and floated away a bit.

"It is alright now. I have been with so many different Ladybugs, each of them unique in their own ways, and because of that, I have grown stronger. You will too. It just takes a little bit of time and trust in your friends to do it."

"What did I do to deserve you?" Nancy playfully poked her nose and Tikki giggled. A voice came from downstairs, calling her down for dinner. She slid off the bed with the promise of food upon her return.


End file.
